The Bride of Quetzalcoatl
by Child of a Broken Dawn
Summary: How did Jack discover the Isla de Muerta in the first place? And what price did he pay for the discovery? Quetzalcoatl is the head Aztec god, btw. Rated T for safety.


Okay, I do not own POTC. I do, however, own Janine. So no using her without my permission, or you shall be squirrel-d. I'm trying really hard not to make her a Mary Sue, so constructive criticism is much appreciated. On with the show!

There was much rum-drinking on the deck of the _Sea Queen_ that night. That's the first thing that comes to mind. There was probably some carousing too, but I was too damn drunk to remember. Jack had picked me up at some pub in Tortuga about two months ago, and we'd been sailing around, ravaging a ship here, sacking a settlement there. I was his floozy, and the crew typically left us alone when Jack broke out the rum. It was Jack's first experience as a captain, and his ego was highly inflated. I, too, was young and inexperienced, and didn't know that following steady patrons was not a good idea. Anyway, I remember looking out over the deck and woozily asking Jack "Was that there before?" "That" was an island, fairly large, which had appeared out of nowhere. Jack stumbled over to see what I'd found. His eyes slid in and out of focus for a while, as he struggled to comprehend. "'S an island," he muttered, "'S a big island what whasn' there before."

He called some crew, and readied a little boat to go ashore. After it was lowered (and I should mention that the _Sea Queen_ was a relatively small ship), he held out his hand to help me in. I know I sound clichéd, but his smile at that moment pierced my heart. Maybe it was the rum, but I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I wish I could say that I had some prophetic vision that made me think better of it, but nothing of the sort happened, and I stepped (a more accurate word would be stumbled-so-that-the-boat-rocked) in.

The first thing we did was investigate the caves. Considering as we actually entered through a cave, this was fairly easy. The first cave was fairly boring with some symbols and odd pictures carved in the walls. Jack said they were Aztec, but I just giggled girlishly and kissed him some more. It was in the second cave that we found the chest. If I could go back and stop myself from doing what I did, scare myself so hard with the truth that I'd have run from the cave screaming, I wouldn't do it. I may sound cold, but I needed the experience to jolt me from my silliness. Jack opened the chest. The inside gleamed with golden medallions, each identical to the last. Time did not slow down. I felt no pain. I even giggled yet again as I reached into the sea of golden skulls, and extricated one. "Hey, Jack," I simpered, "This'd make a right pretty necklace for your Janine. You got a chain of some kind?" He did not. So it was back to the _Queen _to raid the hold. I found there a simple golden chain, on which I strung the medallion.

Jack and I returned to the caves, but found nothing more to interest us. So (yes, this is true,) we danced. It took a while for me to notice a look of sheer terror in his eyes. "Whatsa matter, love?" I asked him. In response, he gently pushed me into a shaft of silver moonlight. His voice was weak. "I-I don't think you oughta have taken that piece o'gold, Janine." "What, this?" I chuckled, holding up the trinket to get a better look at it. Then I noticed my hands. The flesh, muscle, blood vessels, sinew...were all gone. My hands looked like those of a skeleton. On closer inspection, my arms seemed to have part in this grisly new development. As did most every part of my body. By some lucky (or cruel, I have yet to decide which) development of nature, my breasts remained as always, though this may have been to toy with me, ruining my beauty in parts and retaining it in others. My clothes hung in tatters, layers of my petticoats and skirts torn away to reveal my now-ragged drawers. I squinted in the bit of gold to see my face; luckily most of the flesh remained. However, cartilage was visible through a hole where my nose once was. Through providence alone, my long, silver-blonde hair was untouched. The most odd part? The minute I stepped from the moonlight, I was completely back to normal.

I tried returning the medallion. Nothing changed. I tried to drink more rum. It was as if I'd never drunk it. I even tried to shoot myself. I didn't feel it. Jack left me on the island. He promised to come back and fix me, but I'm still here. Moldering away in the darkest corners of caves, looking at the gross parody of my former self I've become in my lovely necklace. Maybe one day Jack'll return. But I doubt it.

Well, that's it for now. R&R, pretty please? Maybe I'll write more... MWAHAHAHAAA!


End file.
